Foreword: The Many Passions of Teaching Corporations

Adolf A. Berle, Jr. Center on Corporations, Law and Society, Seattle University School of Law

Date Written: Winter 2000

Abstract

Teachers of Corporations share a passion for their subject and consider this first course in the business law curriculum to have fundamental importance for all law-trained professionals. Seemingly, however, we agree on little else, including the substantive focus of the course, the nature of the course materials, and the insights that teachers should convey. In fact, Corporations differs dramatically from school to school. Some teachers focus substantial attention on unincorporated business associations, while others cover only corporation law. Some who teach exclusively about the corporation emphasize closely held firms, while others highlight the law related to publicly traded entities. Likewise, teachers have dramatically different views on the extent to which Corporations should introduce federal securities law; stress the Delaware corporation code or the Model Business Corporations Act; draw on the insights learned from economics, sociology, history, and cognitive psychology; scrutinize corporations' social responsibility; attempt to teach lawyering skills such as negotiation, drafting and counseling; or highlight the ethical dimensions of corporate law and practice. The essays in this Symposium paint a picture of the modern Corporations course that is remarkably unlike the Corporations course of 1970. Today, Corporations is a rich mosaic of central themes and methodologies, representing both the diverse viewpoints of those who teach it and a substantive complexity and richness that is unmatched in other business law offerings.